Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
Middle Tennessee
South Florida
Raiders outlast #29 South Florida in Marathon Match
3/28/2021 5:57:00 PM | Men's Tennis
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – In a match that took nearly four hours, the #46 Middle Tennessee men's tennis team came out on top over #29 South Florida at the Adams Tennis Complex, 4-3, for their 28th straight win at home.
The Raiders improve to 13-5 on the season while the Bulls fall to 11-6.
In doubles action, Pavel Motl and Stijn Slump defeated the 14th-ranked pair in the country, 6-4, to clinch the point for the Raiders after Tom Moonen and Chris Edge disposed of their opponent, 6-2.
Edge had the only lopsided singles match, winning 6-1, 6-0, as all the other matches went three sets.
On court #3, Slump won the first set, 6-2, but fell in the final two sets by the same score of 6-4. On court #6, Max Rauch dropped the first set, 6-3, rebounded to win the second set, 6-1, but ultimately fell in the third, 6-1, as South Florida tied the match at two.
The Bulls took the lead after winning on court two. Moonen kept it close nearly the entire match with #69 Jakub Wojcik, but fell 7-6 (5), 6-7 (4), 2-6.
At the beginning of the day, it seemed like court #1 would have the match of the day and it did not disappoint. 35th-ranked Francisco Rocha took the first set over #45 Chase Ferguson in a tiebreak, 7-4. After Ferguson won the second, 6-3, it all came down to the final set. The third set remained on serve until Rocha broke at 4-3, going up 5-3, and allowing him to serve out the match.
With the overall match now tied at three, Motl was just a couple of points away from clinching it for the Raiders. Up 5-4 in the third and the game tied at 30, Motl survived long enough on back-to-back points to see his opponent hit shots into the net to earn the break and the win, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4.
The Blue Raiders will be back in action this week when they travel to Louisville to take on the Cardinals at 1 p.m. MTSU defeated Louisville earlier in the year at home, 4-0.
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
2,3,1
#1 Singles Match
#2 Singles Match
#3 Singles Match
#4 Singles Match
#5 Singles Match
#6 Singles Match
Order of Finish:
4,3,6,2,1,5
Players Mentioned
